CULT OF THE TRIFLE BATH

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 3713, 5 October 1926, Page 7

CULT OF THE TRIFLE BATH

WATER, AIR, AND LIGHT “ The body, to be healthy, needs three kinds of hath—water, air, and light,” declares Dr C. W. Saleeby, in an article on ‘ Clothing,’ published in the May issue of the organ of the I New Health Society, London. 1 He adds the perhaps difficult advice ! that the cult of the triple bath should be followed “ when possible ” with the body free from clothes. ‘‘We dress for decoration, decency, and defence,” he goes on. “Health recjuircs, at times, defence against cold and wet and mechanical injury. At other times, the less clothing the better. Decency depends on custom, which varies. Women are fortunate, in that nowadays custom regards as decent a freedom of body and exposure of skin which were formerly condemned; and amemia is rare and consumption rapidly declines among women accordingly. ! “ Insofar as we must wear clothes for use, as distinguished from ostentation or imitation, they .should be as light in weight and limited in extent as possible. The best way to “keep out the cold” is to have active internal fires, which make plenty of beat. The muscles are the fireplaces of the body. No clothing will keep a corpse warm. “ Since clothing is not unfairly, to be called a necessary evil, we must minimise its evil as far as possible. First, all clothing must be loose. Any I tight or bard clothing is an afioininaI lion, and all such cause local injury; a hard hat hurts the hair, a hard cor--ct does manifold injury, a tight hoot causes corps, and so on. “ All clothing next the skin should be absorbent and washable. Clothing is abused not only when it is tight, when it unnecessarily arrests the ul-tra-violet rays of complete sunlight, i Where possible we should wear cloth--1 ing of loose texture between the fibres : of which the precious light can cn- ! ter. I ========